FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Tizer]

I assume the windows were a later addition?

[Stanley]

Well spotted Tiz, I meant to mention that but forgot. Originally of course the shelters had no windows. They were put in after the war so that the shelter could be used as a store.



Barlick wasn't at high risk from bombing and I have never heard of anyone installing an Anderson Shelter in the town. Here's a LINK for anyone not familiar with them.

[David Whipp]

...but there was the case of the nuclear bomb shelter built at Kirk Clough on Brogden Lane!

Discovered after the previous owners of the property (and builders of the bunker) had emigrated to Australia (to get further away from the Cold War?).

[Tizer]

Where I lived on the outskirts of Blackburn in the 1950s there were about six large communal air raid shelters within 5 minutes walking distance. I don't recall many shelters elsewhere, even in the centre of the town, but there was nothing special about where I lived to warrant extra protection and we bordered onto allotments and farmers' fields. No very grand houses, no large factories close by, no cinemas etc, a few corner shops and pubs. Strange!

[PanBiker]

There was an air raid shelter just off Valley Road, on the former garage site near the milk cooler, already derelict when I was a lad. You can still see bits of it in the debris through the fence.

I noticed the other day also that the concrete machine gun post at the junction into Barley is no longer there. Don't go all that often so that may have gone some time ago.

[Stanley]

There used to be a pill box at the junction on the back road from Colne into Nelson where you turned off towards Widdup reservoirs and Hebden Bridge.

See Fred Inman's transcripts in the LTP for his time in the Home Guard and manning the observation post at Pinhaw. Another place where you'll see relics of WW2 defences is on the road down to County Brook Mill.



I have no direct evidence that the concrete cylinders were originally made as WW2 road blocks but they were certainly used as they could be swiftly rolled into place if needed. There are quite a few down at the mill, if I remember rightly they were used to reinforce the dam walls as well.

[Stanley]

This is not a forgotten corner and never will be but even so, it is past and can never be repeated. I have been so lucky.....

[Stanley]

I had to break my news to a good friend of mine, Robert, about Janet and pics can be so handy, I sent him this....



Playing chess at Hey Farm in 1977. Even Fly my old cattle dog gets a look in. It's a personal forgotten corner.
[Make sure you take plenty of pics!]

[Stanley]

Just after the war this was the centre of the latest technology in Barlick. On York Street, the source of the Rediffusion signal that was piped round the town giving radio and TV signals via a cable for a small weekly charge. Some of the cables still survive and should be cut down. I have never understood why the company wasn't forced to do this when the system was discontinued. So the cables also are a forgotten corner!

[David Whipp]

The cables are a standing item on Pendle Council's West Craven area committee, but they might as well be forgotten about for all the good that it does.

Those above Frank Street are particularly perilous, with the cables resting on top of ridge tiles and steadily wearing away as they rub in the wind.

[Nolic]

Back a few posts to the concrete cylinders. I am sure they had a wartime purpose - my dad says they were for use a tank hazards in the case of an invasion. There used to be some near the now demolished machine gun post at the bottom slope of Whitemoor Res near to the junction of the lane leading to the Stew Mill.
I wet past the still standing MG post near rhe junction of the Nelson Road to Widdup. Sure enough there are similar concrete cyliners that have now been built into the wall.
I suspect this is not a co-incidence and they were to be used if the need for defence against invasion arose. Nolic

[Big Kev]

The cables are a standing item on Pendle Council's West Craven area committee, but they might as well be forgotten about for all the good that it does.

Those above Frank Street are particularly perilous, with the cables resting on top of ridge tiles and steadily wearing away as they rub in the wind.

The cable was laying in the troughing when I lived at Montrose Terrace and were attached just underneath here at Park Street, all gone now though.

[Stanley]

Comrade they were certainly used as easily manhandled road blocks, or that was the intention.
The Rediffusion cables that worry me most are the ones still in place over roads. There is one across Wellhouse Street at the end of Cooperative Street. Anyone who has cut one down knows they are steel reinforced and very tough, imagine a cyclist or a car hitting one.....
Invoke Elfin Safety?

[David Whipp]

Until a few years ago, the county council were very good at sending a cherrypicker to deal with Rediffusion cables that were causing problems. I recall them coming out and removing a cable from Ellis Street down to Albert Road which was sagging above the road. Not now though. Government funding cuts have slashed budgets to the point where such public spirited work can't be afforded. LCC says it hasn't a duty to deal with such cables (despite them being over the highway).

Have also tried getting action through Pendle Council, but this would involve taking action against the property owners whose buildings the cables are attached to.

Ofcom don't want to know...

The ownership of the cables has passed from company to company (including one of Robert Maxwell's outfits). I believe the assets and liabilities should rest with the administrators of the last concern holding the baby - but so far, this has been a dead end.

If someone is injured because of these cables, the insurers of whatever entity last owned them may have some liability, but again, this has gone nowhere.

Pendle Council has raised the issue with regional colleagues and through different networks (please pardon pun), but this hasn't turned up any effective action.

There's a lot of copper in those cables, but I've refrained from publicising this widely as property owners probably wouldn't be too pleased if scrapmen started tramping about on their slates...

When you start looking, there are lots of places where cables are strung between corroding fixings above roads and pavements.

As you'll gather, I'm baffled about how to get effective action; any answers very welcome!

[PanBiker]

There should be an issue also of outstanding way leave payments to folk whose property they use. When the network was operational you used to get an annual payment for network hosting. Certainly the case at my house on York Street. I think I used to get about £1.50 paid annually, I didn't use the service but had a support on my house. Multiply that by the number of properties and the years its been up there, no wonder no one wants to fess up for ownership. I have often thought that It maybe a worthwhile project for a bloke with a ladder and time on his hands. Steel reinforced multi pair copper, a bob or two there. Definitely a forgotten corner. It brought Wagon Train and the Home Service when I was little lad.

[Stanley]

Everyone had one of those brown Bakelite boxes on the window cill. If I remember rightly it had a knob on with numbered positions. An LKF for you, Plunketts in Barrowford were one of the first to install a system in this area, I have an idea it started in the 1930s. I remember the owner telling me about has dad and the men stringing cables up when he was a lad.
Big problem with the remaining cables is the armoured sheath, I had to use an angle grinder to cut it when I took it down, the big Record bolt cutters wouldn't look at it, I think you'd need the special piano wire blades for the jaws. When they were doing the refurb on East Hill Street I pointed out to the foreman that they were all redundant and they took the remaining ones down on the row as they did the work.

[PanBiker]

Shorrocks used to run the service before Rediffusion took over. The antennas for the network were down in the field next to Rainhall Rock just off the start of Salterforth Lane. The shop was the one on the corner on Albert Road opposite the Majestic next to what is now the opticians. I went to college with a few of the Rediffusion lads from Burnley, they had to learn standard front end receiver technology like the rest of us even though not used on the stuff they were servicing.

[Stanley]

The chocolate shop.... bit of a mystery to me as I never see anyone in it.
Remember the 'H' aerials? The first on the street to get one of those up was definitely in front of the curve!



That reminds me, my satellite reception worsens daily and no sign of James the aerial man! Can't even get his phone except for leaving messages. It's getting serious! As you can see in the pic, I suspect this dish has reached it's sell by date.

[PanBiker]

The "H" aerials were Band I channel 2 for BBC reception from Holme Moss, you would also see dual bayed multi element aerials they were channels 9/12 for ITV. Add a horizontal FM Radio aerial a bit later and then a UHF yagi when BBC2 came along and all the stacks were proper festooned. We forget how much hardware was required at on time just to get a signal! Not enough room on lots of single chimney stacks so the aerials were stacked vertically on longer poles. All TV and Radio signals came from reasonably local (60 miles or so) transmitters and we more or less had an aerial for each one.

Now we all have a single small parabolic dish looking at a geostationary orbital satellite 22,000 miles above our heads that delivers more channels than you can possibly ever watch or need. Lets hear it for festooned chimney stacks, they kept thousand of riggers in work but definitely a forgotten corner now.

[Stanley]

Remember the squariel? All gone now.... remind me what they were for...

[plaques]

Remember the squariel?

Mine was for riding on. An Ariel Square Four, 1000cc motorbike. Still in my garage. Somehow I don't think you meant one of these.

[PanBiker]

The Squarial was a flat plate antenna used for receiving signals from the BSatB satellite which is now defunct.

Square arrays on the other hand are combinations of antennas grouped to provide more receiving gain. For VHF TV sometimes 4 x channel 9/12 aerials stacked and bayed. It was common to see double 9/12's and then occasionally quad arrays. TV receivers on the VHF bands used the frequencies either side of the VHF Radio band. Channel I was lower (around 40Mhz - 60Mhz) and Channel III higher (around 175Mhz - 215Mhz). When UHF TV came along the frequencies used got higher and aerials smaller (470Mhz - 850Mhz), but still common to see stacked arrays in bad reception areas. Trees and hills were the bugbear with terrestrial TV. Satellite TV suffers more from weather disturbance, a good rain cell can totally obliterate a digital downlink, you can also get occasional problems with aircraft flutter. I would imagine that will be more prevalent if you live on a major flightpath.

[Stanley]

East Hill Street used to be poor reception from terrestrial sources. I can remember when some parts of the town received both Granada and YTV. That was why I was very early in getting satellite. First Sky and then Freesat. No problems virtually until now and today I get a new dish in a better position where it won't fill with snow in winter! (that buggers the signal as well)
Another really forgotten corner in terms of services is domestic water links with the mains and gas and electricity. There are pipes and cables in the town that date back to the start of the utilities, gas and water during 19th century and leccy form the 1930s.



A water pipe from a house in East Hill Street. Once at Hey Farm our gas went off and I went to the blokes on Crow Row who were digging and they were very surprised when I told them, they had no record of the connection. Water was the same, there was a bloke at Rolls who was with the Craven Water Board for years and the water company had an arrangement with Rolls whereby they could go for him for his knowledge as the system wasn't properly mapped. Same thing happened at Marton when Craven took over the old estate supply.

[Stanley]

Have you ever noticed the distinctive high voltage electricity cables coming into Barlick from the direction of Keighley? They are made of steel beams instead of a lattice. I was once told that they are the upgraded line installed at the beginning of WW2 to make sure the Shadow Factories had enough power.

[Stanley]

Henry Brown and Son built a new foundry on spare ground at Havre Park in 1922.



The present Gissing and Lonsdale works is based on the old foundry. Johnny Pickles was in charge of the 1922 build and the ground was so soft he had to put many tons of old loom shafts in as a foundation to stop the walls sinking. This is a problem all along the valley, soft river silt. When Wellhouse Mill was being built they were continually rebuilding walls that sank as fast as they built them. The wonder is that the large stone chimney never went out of plumb.